Weight saving has long been an important consideration in the aircraft industry, as the weight saved gives an increase in the payload for the aircraft. One of many areas where weight can be saved lies in tapering of structural members to provide structural strength where needed while saving weight due to the tapering. Many shaped structural members are formed from a flat strip of metal that is tapered to effect a weight savings. These tapered strips have been formed in the past by placing a strip of metal on the bed of a milling cutter, holding the strip down, and passing the mill cutter head back and forth over the strip until the desired contour is obtained. This is an intermittent operation that is time consuming and costly. It has been found that a tapered strip of metal can be formed in a continuous single pass operation using the invention of this disclosure.